March 26, 2008

Hey, that's better! In fact, that's great! These two dogs saw that I was trying to photograph them, struck this pose, and held it while I took 10 pictures. Maybe I do need a dog or two. If they'd pose, like that....

Here is a simple test. Take a dog and your spouse or signifigant other and lock them in the trunk of a car on a hot day for about fifteen minutes. Open the trunk. Which one is going to be happy to see you.

You need a dog with longer legs. At some point you'll want your dog up on the bed with you -- if it's a three dog night, for example -- and a pug will just jump up, hit the side of the bed, and fall back to the floor.

I visited a friend who had two pugs. They flew around the house continuously never once slowing down, huffing and snorting the entire time. Apparently their little smashed in faces create trouble breathing. There would be a reason as to why they were bred for smashed in faces but that reason is beyond me. *Googles +pug +face* Nope. I'm wrong. No good reason whatsoever.

bearbee is right, no dog is grotesque. If you decide you want a dog, Ann, just keep looking until you find one that feels right for you. Even a short-legged one -- there are many little staircase products on the market that allow the little guys to get up on the bed and the couch.

But having a dog in your bed or room is a major part of the dog-owning experience. The dog thinks you are its pack leader, and sleeping with the rest of the pack is key to the dog's sense of well-being. Your sense of well-being should also gain by having an extra fuzzy body to snuggle with on cold nights.

"It may be more appealing if you realize that dogs run about 101°. A large dog heats the whole bed."

Appealing? What happens in summer?

"But having a dog in your bed or room is a major part of the dog-owning experience. The dog thinks you are its pack leader, and sleeping with the rest of the pack is key to the dog's sense of well-being. Your sense of well-being should also gain by having an extra fuzzy body to snuggle with on cold nights."

Fuzzy body? But I bathe before I go to be, and I have clean sheets. The dog has been outside and collecting dirt — toxins! — for days (or however long a dog goes without a bath). How can you let that in the bed. You wouldn't accept a human being in that state of filthiness in your bed. I do not understand how people can want the dog in the bed. I presume you sleeping-with-the-dog folks don't sleep naked.

Fuzzy body? But I bathe before I go to be[d], and I have clean sheets. The dog has been outside and collecting dirt — toxins! — for days (or however long a dog goes without a bath). How can you let that in the bed. You wouldn't accept a human being in that state of filthiness in your bed. I do not understand how people can want the dog in the bed. I presume you sleeping-with-the-dog folks don't sleep naked.

A dog changes your ideas of hygiene for the better.

Dobermans are self-cleaning, by the way. No bath ever needed, except perhaps localized cleanups on occasion. There must be some oil on the fur that repels everything.

It's true that you lose some possessions that you imagined (falsely!) that you needed to various conversions the dog may work, especially in the first year.

I myself purchased a box of 12 full-sized fitted 180 count white sheets ($100) against a hole-digging urge that took a while to die out, under the nesting instinct. The punctured extras though serve as nice sun covers for the dog trailer, so nature finds a use for everything.

Ann,Having a dog in your bed is a personal decision or choice. Some people love their dogs that much.

If you get a dog, you decide! It is not up to the dog, or anyone else. My dog thinks dog beds are toys. He shreds them. he sleeps downstairs on the carpet or the couch. I have high thread count sheets and good bedding. Also, a dog in the bed, ah, uh, eh, well, if I bring a lady friend home, it is rather inconvenient, if ya know what I mean.

I have no argument with those who sleep with dogs as long as they do not complain about waking up with fleas- humor. I have friends who love their dogs so much they think they are human and treat them as such.

Dogs are great companions. You train the dog not the other way around.

At Universal, Marie Prevost almost immediately became a huge star of the silent screen. An embodiment of the so-called Jazz Age in films like 1921's Moonlight Follies and The Married Flapper, released in 1922. But her stay at Universal would be short and she soon signed a contract to work for Warner Brothers starting in 1922. While she would only stay with that studio for four years, she would make some of her best movies and would ignite the screen with her overt sexuality. At Warner, she began to make the first of what would turn out to be a 10-film liaison with leading man Monte Blue. Three of her best films would be directed by one of the greatest directors of the era, Germany's Ernst Lubitsch. Lubitsch was a master of the Hollywood sex farce, and Prevost was one of the stars of his breakthrough film The Marriage Circle in 1924.

The first event in Marie's downturn began when her mother was killed in car accident. Virtually inconsolable, Marie began to drink heavily to ease her pain. Also, the Depression had started and just when it mattered, Marie found herself without a contract at a major studio. Added to that was the fact her 1929 film, The Godless Girl, directed by Cecil B. DeMille by the way, was a flop at the box office. And, if all that wasn't enough, her drinking had caused her to put on weight and now in her early 30s, Marie's career was in trouble.

That said, Marie continued to turn out strong performances in most of her films through 1930. Of particular note was her role as Joan Crawford's prison pal in Paid, as well as her superb work as a wisecracking crony of Barbara Stanwyck in Ladies of Leisure. But two years later things had changed. Marie made only four films in 1932 and the last of these had seen her marquee billing slip from star to a supporting role in Three Wise Girls. In the next three years Marie would appear in only 9 films, many of them made for small studios on small budgets. Marie was by now extremely heavy and in an attempt to regain her former status she began to diet. In truth, she stopped eating.

And that's how Marie died. She basically starved herself to death.

Trapped in the home without food or water, her dog ended up by eating her, little by little. Instead of being remembered as one of the brightest stars in the early days of Hollywood, Marie Prevost is usually remembered, when she is remembered at all, because of her tragic death and gruesome end.

Ann, you don't have to let the dog in your bed. Don't get a dachschund, though; they demand it, and they're bred to dig and burrow, so they do get under the covers. Fortunately, the short-haired ones are clean and easy to groom.

If you get a dog, buy a comfy dog bed filled with temperpedic-style foam, and everyone will be happy. You're the pack leader, so you can pretty much say where the dog sleeps. Except for dachshunds. They don't give a fig for pack heirarchy.

Lower East Side pub crawlers, who tend to hop from bar to bar on skateboard, were a little surprised to see two black Escalades roll up to Orchard Street dive bar Sweet Paradise at 2 A.M. Sunday. Passing up standard hot spots, Mary-Kate Olsen and her posse slummed it up with some die-hard hipsters. Page Six overheard one bystander comment, "An Olsen just went in there." When asked which troll-sized twin it was, our witness replied, "I think it was the fat one."

I've had dogs who liked to sleep in bed, ones who liked to sleep under the covers (with head on pillow), and a few who preferred the floor, a basket or the couch. I've had dogs who were immaculate, and some who tended to be kind of stinky. All types are awesome. I'd be willing to bet these Pugs are bed dogs!

Ann,Have you ever had a dog? If you have, reach back in your memory and think about how you interacted with the dog and how responsible you were towards the dog- the usual taking it out, walking it, cleaning up after it, taking it to the vet, etc. That should assist you in your decision.

I've never had a dog, but it's not an issue of whether I'd be irresponsible. It's a question of whether I'd regret taking on the responsibility. Or whether I'd be resentful. I would resent it if the dog had to be in the bed (or on the bed, whatever).

I have two Boston Terriers, similar to pugs, but more athletic and cute (in my opinion). They both sleep in my bed, above and below the covers, depending on the weather. I wouldn't have it any other way. Nothing like cuddling up to a fuzzy puppy, or two.

My neighbors recently lost a springer spaniel at the sparkling age of 14.... He slept between them.

I've always been a big dog type, and we have a beautiful red mutt of shepherd and chow and god knows what else origins. He's what every dog should be - handsome and sweet and full of high spirits.

The hot dog just happened. My neighbor had a pair, and they kept having litters and she'd parade the puppies by in a little red wagon and one Sunday, after football and many beers, I gave in to the hard sell. Voila, we have a bossy little bastard of a dog.

I have had great danes and a mastiff--one of the danes we got as a puppy is a bed sleeper (by invitation), and although she does start out sleeping on top during the night she burrows under the sheets. The mastiff would never get in bed, but did sleep at the foot of the bed. Seems to me that having a dog is a special gift. There's something about how they greet you when you come home and how they seem to forgive you for whatever slights and oversights you might (unintentionally) inflict on them. Thats pretty special.

And I think Pogo has the answer: What Althouse needs is a big stuffed animal dog. So she can, hush hush, maintain the pleasures of her singlehood but still have a big soft furry clean thing to cuddle with.

Owning a dog is not singlehood, not if one is a responsible dog owner. Look at middle class guy and rhhardin. Those are not lifestyles of the simple, free, and self-indulgent. They own their dogs, but more importantly, their dogs own them. (NTTAWWT - just that it ain't Ann Althouse, now is it? No, it's not.)

"It seems to me that a dog is more like a child... that never grows up."

But it's even worse than that - it's a child that never grows up but does grow old. And then, speaking of responsibility, the responsible moral dog owner is called upon to do the decent thing - to euthanize the animal before it's life becomes mostly about suffering - to figure out a way, with the help of a good vet, to end the life of the child that never grows up - with some sort of dignity. It isn't simple, free, or self indulgent and even "dog people" get it wrong time after time.

I have not owned a dog for twenty years. I brought home my dog in December. He was a one year old male. I had to think back to the last dog I owned and try and apply what I knew to this one.

A dog is a responsibility one chooses. You have to plan around it; vacations, absences over a few hours, being gone on business for a few days, etc. Then there are the vet check ups.

But, I love my dog. It will probably be my last one. There is something about a creature that will love you back, even if you yell at it. It is hard to explain the bond between human and dog. But he is my best friend.

He does not sleep with me and he is not allowed in the bedroom, but he has the run of the rest of the house, except the kitchen.

My dog was unruly, wild and really like a wolf. His howling disturbed the neighborhood. His natural playful nature frightened people. We loved him anyway.

HE got his male workout from the man of the house. Gads, those two "playing" in the garage. He had enough sense with dogs and farm life to know that the dog needed that kind of workout. He probably obeyed me the most because I walked the most miles with him. He had different relationships with all the kids comparable to their personalities. One thing none of us was ever able to do was get a good photograph of him looking straight into the camera. I always figured he thought we were getting a piece of his soul, similar to stories I have read about the Plains Indians when posing for drawings or photographs when the first of such came in a wave across the praries and hills.

The only time he looked me straight in the eye when I had my camera in hand was when I had to make "that call" to the vet. There was no light left in his eyes but there was a facial expression of thanks. If his legs weren't so tired, he would have walked to the woods and buried himself, but that wasn't an option left to him.

In New York City I was amazed at how polite the dogs are. City dogs. Our dog couldn't have survived one day in a street of so many people. I often wonder how the dogs in New York know when it is time to die. They seem more like people to me than dogs.

that thought makes me recall a short story I read years ago from Daphne du Maurier Classics of the Macabre, about a blind woman regaining her sight and identifying people with dogs and being frightened when she learned what people really looked like. gads, that woman could write.

I have been thinking about it, and Ruth Anne, Eva and Meade may be right. You aren't a dog person, and so you probably shouldn't get a dog. It struck me after I read your comment that I don't know *anyone* who regrets getting their dog. I actually don't know anyone who hasn't had at least one dog always - all throughout life. The alternative isn't an option. I guess that means the world of animal lovers and non-animal lovers doesn't intersect much socially except perhaps at the shelter? I wonder why have you been considering getting a dog?

howzerdo: I like Bassetts -- my vet runs a Bassett and Beagle rescue. There's always a few on the premises.

I've never regretted having our dogs, though, yes, Meade, is right, you have to do right by them, even if it's emotionally hard for yourself.

I guess they're like children in that they think at about the same level we expect from a child between 24 and 30 months old, but they mature in temperament, and that's not childlike. They like to lay about and be quiet.

Our shepherd mix doesn't get in bed often, but when he does, he's quiet about it. My partner wakes up to find him stretched alongside her, with his head on the pillow. She (jokingly) calls him her little dog husband when he does that.

It's late, I'm babbling. I apologize. MCG, thanks for that list. Anyone thinking of having a dog needs to be aware of how you have to work things around them with some forethought.

Since Katrina, we've been more careful about any time we spend away from New Orleans from June through September (yes, the season lasts through October and November, but it's less volatile then). Basically, we don't go more than a half-day's drive from the city, or we board the dogs outside the main danger zone, or we have a reciprocal plan with friends who commit to evacuating the pets and meeting up at a nearby city to hand them off. Yes, pets are demanding.

It's late, I'm babbling. I apologize. MCG, thanks for that list. Anyone thinking of having a dog needs to be aware of how you have to work things around them with some forethought.

Since Katrina, we've been more careful about any time we spend away from New Orleans from June through September (yes, the season lasts through October and November, but it's less volatile then). Basically, we don't go more than a half-day's drive from the city, or we board the dogs outside the main danger zone, or we have a reciprocal plan with friends who commit to evacuating the pets and meeting up at a nearby city to hand them off. Yes, pets are demanding.

Ann: I hate the idea of a dog in my bed... or even in my room when I'm trying to sleep. Does that mean I don't want a dog?

Nope. I have a 15 year old 50 pound Australian Shepherd. I don't want him on my furniture or on my bed. He's just too big, will sleep cross-wise on my be if given a chance (leaving no room for me in my own bed), and does NOT like to be moved while he's sleeping.

He has claws that are murder on fabric, long hair that continually sheds, very little instinct for personal hygiene, and will eat and lick things that will shock you. Best to have the beasties stay on the floor, far away from your pillows.

If you wanted a dog you wouldn't be asking internet strangers whether you want a dog.And yes we are all strangers - you have no idea what we smell like.Dog people know how important one's scent is.Non-dog people need to be reminded of such fundamentals. Such as that dogs smell (sniff you & give off odor). And that they fart - on their own schedule.Leave the dog pics to Rachel Lucas, a woman who knows enough about herself that she has never turned to a stranger and asked whether living with dogs is a good idea.One does not merely get a dog, buy a dog or own a dog unless one owns a farm. Otherwise, one lives with a dog. Or not.

I am a pet agnostic, but I married a cat lover. They're as loving and defensive about their animals as the dog owners here demonstrate. The cat and I tolerate each other. I feed it every day, and she doesn't vomit in my shoes. It's a nice arrangement.

I have regretted others who have owned dogs, mostly because of the cruelty they've shown towards them. My neighbors, for example. Once their boys threw a mutt in a cheap backyard pool and wouldn't let it get out, poking it with sticks to shove it back in, panicked. I went apeshit screaming at them, and making them stop. Then I called our pound (now renamed some unmemorable piece of bureaucratic puffery), and the dog was removed. The dad next door threatened to "get me", of course.

My other next door neighbors have some sort of wild hellbeast, some mix containing at least 75% pit bull and 25% drool. I have only seen it leave the house about once every season to go on a walk/drag. Where in God's name does it void? It never comes outside.

I missed all the dog love growing up, hence my irreligiosity in the matter.

At Universal, Marie Prevost almost immediately became a huge star of the silent screen. An embodiment of the so-called Jazz Age in films like 1921's Moonlight Follies and The Married Flapper, released in 1922. But her stay at Universal would be short and she soon signed a contract to work for Warner Brothers starting in 1922. While she would only stay with that studio for four years, she would make some of her best movies and would ignite the screen with her overt sexuality. At Warner, she began to make the first of what would turn out to be a 10-film liaison with leading man Monte Blue. Three of her best films would be directed by one of the greatest directors of the era, Germany's Ernst Lubitsch. Lubitsch was a master of the Hollywood sex farce, and Prevost was one of the stars of his breakthrough film The Marriage Circle in 1924.

The first event in Marie's downturn began when her mother was killed in car accident. Virtually inconsolable, Marie began to drink heavily to ease her pain. Also, the Depression had started and just when it mattered, Marie found herself without a contract at a major studio. Added to that was the fact her 1929 film, The Godless Girl, directed by Cecil B. DeMille by the way, was a flop at the box office. And, if all that wasn't enough, her drinking had caused her to put on weight and now in her early 30s, Marie's career was in trouble.

That said, Marie continued to turn out strong performances in most of her films through 1930. Of particular note was her role as Joan Crawford's prison pal in Paid, as well as her superb work as a wisecracking crony of Barbara Stanwyck in Ladies of Leisure. But two years later things had changed. Marie made only four films in 1932 and the last of these had seen her marquee billing slip from star to a supporting role in Three Wise Girls. In the next three years Marie would appear in only 9 films, many of them made for small studios on small budgets. Marie was by now extremely heavy and in an attempt to regain her former status she began to diet. In truth, she stopped eating.

And that's how Marie died. She basically starved herself to death.

Trapped in the home without food or water, her dog ended up by eating her, little by little. Instead of being remembered as one of the brightest stars in the early days of Hollywood, Marie Prevost is usually remembered, when she is remembered at all, because of her tragic death and gruesome end.